Drilling presentation an educational resource for towns

Tompkins County planner forecasts some effects of fracking

Jun. 30, 2011

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Ithaca -- Potential loss of farmland, water usage, and the number of possible hydraulic fracturing drill pads within a certain town are included in a presentation created by Tompkins County Planner Darby Kiley to illustrate what Tompkins might look like once drilling got under way.

Kiley's goal in creating the presentation was to be unbiased in describing the possible effects of drilling, she said. Kiley is in a one-year, grant-supported position as a county planner devoted to drilling issues in the county.

Originally meant to be a short presentation for municipal boards, the lecture grew into a longer presentation, complete with photos of drill pads and areas affected by drilling.

"We want the town boards in attendance, but it's now an educational tool" as well, she said.

Kiley and Tompkins County Council of Government Task Force on Gas Drilling member Art Pearce presented the information in Ulysses and Lansing in the past two weeks. They are offering the presentation to other interested municipalities in the county as well.

They estimate the county could have 210 pads and 2,100 wells total, and that 12 full-time jobs could be supported by each well. They estimate that over a hydrofracking build-out period of eight to 15 years the county could lose 480 acres of active farmland, there could be 1,200 truck trips per well, or 2.52 million total, and hydrofracking could use as much as 10.5 billion gallons of water.

"These numbers are kind of hard to even imagine," she said. "It's hard to get your head around (10.5 billion gallons). ... And that's not going back into Cayuga Lake. It will need to be sequestered underground or (shipped out for treatment elsewhere.)

"That's just from one county," she added. "Think about over the whole region. I mean, golf courses use x-million gallons of water a year, but that goes into the ground and into the water table."

Nearly 40 percent of land in the county is under lease, according to the county Planning Department.